York County To Spend $3 Million To Buy Properties On Waterfront

YORK — County supervisors agreed Tuesday to spend $3 million to buy several riverside properties, including Nick's Seafood Pavilion. The vote was unanimous.

"It's a wonderful way to ensure a legacy in Yorktown," Supervisor Sheila Noll said.

The deal still needs the approval of the Jamestown-Yorktown Educational Trust, owner of the properties. The purchase involves 13 village properties, including several waterfront sites; the landmark eatery, its artwork and furnishings; and two vacant houses.

There are no defined plans to develop the property, but county leaders want to buy the property before it's sold to someone else. York officials intend to use the land in their efforts to revitalize the Yorktown waterfront. Possible uses for the properties include parking lots, as well as a retail and restaurant center.

Mary Mathews, co-founder of Nick's Seafood Pavilion, once owned the properties. When Mathews died in 1998, she left the restaurant and surrounding property to the Educational Trust. That's the nonprofit group of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation that oversees concessions at Jamestown Settlement and the Yorktown Victory Center.

The foundation plans to use the $3 million from the sale for programs at the Victory Center, a county memo read. Foundation officials didn't want to comment on the sale.

Mathews founded the restaurant in 1944 with her husband, Nick, who died in 1983. The couple had no children. As the Greek-American restaurant expanded over the years, adding more staff and seats, so did its reputation. Movie stars and politicians -- such as John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor and U.S. Sen. John Warner -- ate there.

Mathews' will didn't demand that the restaurant stay open.

The restaurant's future is uncertain. County officials want Nick's Seafood Pavilion to stay open, but right now, there's no guarantee. Some county officials are discussing the possibility of moving the business across the street to a new building on the York River, then tearing down the restaurant's white one-story building to make room for a parking lot.

The county plans to sell the Nick's Seafood Pavilion business -- but not the land or building. That sales agreement should make the fate of Nick's clearer. In the meantime, ownership of the company's stock transfers to the county Industrial Development Authority.

Jack Smoot, Mathews' longtime friend and co-executor of her estate, said rumors of the restaurant closing would disappoint Mathews. He said Mathews hoped that her Mediterranean-style house on a bluff overlooking the river could open as a museum. But the county plans to demolish that and another house on nearby property.

While county leaders and several longtime customers hope that Nick's stays open for generations, others said it's time to let it go.

Ann Kirkales spent 46 years at Nick's Seafood Pavilion as a waitress and cashier until last summer, when she retired. She said that the eatery's heyday was over and that it should have closed after Mathews died.

"I hate to see it go," she said, "but there's a time and place for everything."

Kara Urbanski can be reached at 247-7820 or by e-mail at kurbanski@dailypress.com